Saturday, January 07, 2006

AGNOSTIC HEAVEN and AN ATHEIST'S DELIGHT

There is a lovely little feud going on in Italy, which has finally reached the courts.

The court is tackling an accusation of whether it is legal to teach of someone's existence if it can't be proved whether they existed or not on the first place.

The defendant Enrico Righi is a parish priest in the same town as the plaintiff Luigi Casciolli. Both attended the same seminary in their youth but Luigi is now a vocal atheist and has spent years trying to get this er thorny subject to court.

"I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression," Cascioli told Reuters.

Cascioli says Righi, and by extension the whole Church, broke two Italian laws. The first is "Abuso di Credulita Popolare" (Abuse of Popular Belief) meant to protect people against being swindled or conned. The second crime, he says, is "Sostituzione di Persona," or impersonation."The Church constructed Christ upon the personality of John of Gamala," Cascioli claimed, referring to the 1st century Jew who fought against the Roman army.

Anything or anybody, particularly in a country where that nasty little (well, not so little) city called the Vatican has such sway and power, who has the guts to stand up and call them into question over their questionable reasoning deserves a sainthood in my opinion.

The Pope has declined to comment, the coward. The Judge has stated that Christ's existence must be proved.

I await the outcome with baited breath, and of course just a tiny bit of malicious wishful thinking.